'No one deserves to lay in the street:' Petersburg hosts first-ever housing summit
PETERSBURG— The city held its first-ever housing summit, bringing together community leaders, housing advocates, and social workers from the city and surrounding counties to discuss the need and the resources available for housing.
Hosted by Councilwoman Treska Wilson-Smith and social worker Genevieve Lohr, this was the first meeting of the two part series, designed to introduce the topic and different players in the field to each other. Social Services employees from other districts were also present.
It's not the first time the city has tried to bring leaders together to address this issue. Last year, then-city manager Stuart Turille created the "Petersburg Rising" task force and gathered community and faith leaders to discuss problems like violence and homelessness. This meeting was designed to talk about resources available for those in crisis.
"No one deserves to lay in the street," Councilwoman Wilson-Smith said. "Everyone deserves to have a place to lay their head, have a place where they are safe at all times."
When someone is about to become homeless or currently homeless, the first thing they can do is call the Housing Resource Center at 804-722-1181 and be hopefully connected with services, said Lohr.
"Now this does not happen overnight, and I think that's really important for people to understand," said Lohr. "This entire process can take weeks or months."
Homeless services are coordinated by the Crater Area Coalition on Homelessness (CACH). It is the regionwide umbrella organization made up of 10 charities that provide services to the homeless, including St. Joseph's Villa, District-19, and Commonwealth Catholic Charities. They hold regular meetings to discuss how they should prioritize their funding and who they have the resources to help.
Last year, CACH served 361 individuals in Petersburg—the highest number of homeless people helped in the Crater region, which include the Tri-Cities, Surry, Sussex, Greensville, Emporia, Prince George, and Dinwiddie. The next highest population served by CACH was Hopewell (129), followed by Emporia (38). The rest of the of the counties or cities had the number of individuals served in the single digits or in the 20s.
"So when we're talking about services that are needed, concentrating those services in these areas can be beneficial," said Lohr.
Not only is concentrating services in Petersburg and Hopewell needed to provide more help to people in vulnerable situations, investing in homeless services is also cheaper than not doing anything, according to a 2019 study done by VCU and the Cameron Foundation.
Researchers found that the cost of providing housing services for a region was around $1.5 million. However, the cost of not doing anything would be more than $2 million ($1.35 million estimated cost for emergency and other medical services, and around $650,000 for the cost to criminal justice institutions).
Petersburg faces the problem of not having a shelter nearby to serve its large homeless population, after efforts to keep a shelter open was snubbed by the city, in addition to having one of the highest eviction rates of mid-size cities in the state.
More: For nearly two years, the city thwarted efforts to open a shelter
"And so when we're talking about spending money on making sure that people have housing, and that people are not in these situations where they don't know where they're sleeping tonight, it makes sense financially too," said Lohr. "It's not just something that sounds good. It's not just the right thing to do. It also makes sense from that standpoint."
Abundant, affordable housing has long been an issue in the city. With COVID-era rental assistance coming to an end, more people are expected to face homelessness.
More: Virginia tenants facing increased evictions as end to COVID-related protections nears
Halfway through the meeting, Wilson-Smith came out wearing mismatched shoes and gloves as a visual illustration for attendees to see what happens when the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing, and when various individual groups work independently without knowledge of what the other is doing.
"You cannot work like that," said Wilson-Smith. "Nothing will be accomplished. "Ladies and gentlemen, that is your purpose today. So that the right hand and left hand can work together for the common goal of assuring housing for all of our people."
Wilson-Smith also mentioned that her bill written over a decade ago to help prevent eviction in the courts and to turn Central State into a homeless shelter was recently taken up by Delegate Kim Taylor, who will draft the bill in legislative language and bring it to the General Assembly for a vote during the next session.
Wilson-Smith dubbed it "The Humanities Bill."
The federal government has also opened up a new funding opportunity to help the unhoused that organizations can apply for called the the Special Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) to Address Unsheltered and Rural Homelessness (Special NOFO).
Those in need of more housing resources can visit CACH's website here.
Part two of the Housing Summit will focus on finding solutions and be held on Wednesday, Aug. 10 at the library.
Joyce Chu, an award-winning investigative journalist, is the Social Justice Watchdog Reporter for The Progress Index. Contact her with comments, concerns, or story-tips at Jchu1@gannett.com or on Twitter @joyce_speaks.
This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Petersburg hosts first-ever housing summit to address homelessness
